Poor Allstate.

Heard on WWL this morning that there were 1.74 million insurance claims filed after Katrina.

Also heard that Allstate is reporting $5 BILLION in profit for 2006.

Poor little Allstate.

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

Hayden, St. Patrick's Day 2005

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

Owen, St. Patrick's Day 2000

the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,

Bob, Granny, Bryan, Uncle Eddy, Gina 2002

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Gina and Owen, Killarney 2000

Living like a human again . . .

Only 18-months after the Thing, our dear old fridge kicked the bucket over the weekend. She survived the vigorous scrubbing and cleaning and resuscitating that followed having food literally cooking inside for 3-weeks . . . but she was never quite the same after the storm.

Over the weekend, the old survivor started pumping out warm air. No sooner did I empty it, and pack what I could of our perishables into our old dorm fridge (affectionately known as the "beer fridge" - oh and fortunately, thanks to Owen, it was empty since he challenged me to give up beer for Lent - HA HA!) no sooner did I empty it, then that post-Katrina stench reappeared. By the next day, it was all we could do to stand it . . .

At any rate, went to purchase new fridge, stainless and pretty, water dispenser ("SWEEEEET!" says Owen) and as I stood in line, I remarked to the woman behind me, that it would finally be nice to "live like a human again" as we'd been fridge-less for the past couple of days.

"Oh Honey I HEAR you!" she replied, "I've been fridge-less for 18-months - we are finally getting back into our home."

Perspective, man.

My thoughts and prayers to everyone still living in post-disaster not-quite-human conditions . . . sigh.